The first confirmed use of bows and arrows extends back to around 6000 BC in Denmark. These were simple self-bows that have remained popular over the millennia due to their simplicity and ease of manufacture. In the West they were made famous with the medieval English long bow. However it is very likely primitive self-bows were used in many tribal environments in Africa, Asia and the Americas well before the confirmed record.
Composite bows of wood, horn and sinew seem to have appeared around 3000 BC in central Asia and Mesopotamia. These gradually evolved in performance and sophistication reaching a peak about 300 years ago. Interesting the construction materials remained largely unchanged for over 5000 years while construction methods and designs developed regionally. The Turkish reflex bow is generally regarded as the pinnacle in traditional composite bow technology - it optimize the use of materials and in many instances became a work of art and source of great pride.
There is no doubt that bow design was advanced by military needs. The drivers were range, accuracy, penetration, size, launch rate, cost and availability of materials. This is no different to modern day arms development. There were always engineering trade-offs. The self-bow required perhaps 2 man-days to make and 10 day drying time in contrast to the reflex compound bow that required perhaps 10 man-days to make spread over 6-12 months of drying. Thus the self-bow was sometimes preferred as it was cheaper and quicker to procure in times of war than the technically more advanced composite bows.
The smaller size allowed by composite designs allowed use from horseback. This improved hunting success and gave adopting armies a strategic hit-and-run advantage.
For many military strategist, range and penetration was far more important than accuracy. Mass launches on an approaching army could be devastating. There were also logistical advantages - the archers could be less skilled and their equipment less costly.
The interest in archery diminished with the wide adoption of the musket in the 18th century and remained at a low ebb until a resurgence as a sport in the 20th century. For the first time in 5 millennia radically new materials were introduced (fiberglass, carbon fiber, plastics, various metals), new designs such as compound and take-down bow and greater progress in the understanding of the underlying science of bow and arrow dynamics was achieved. The resurgence has also seen a change of focus from range to accuracy.
Evolution of the Bow: 1. Primitive tribal bow, 2. Medieval long bow, 3. Native American double curve bow, 4. West Asian angular bow, 5. Scythian composite bow, 6. Turkish composite bow, 7. Crimean Tatar composite bow, 8. Classic recurve bow, 9. Modern compound bow, 10. Advance take-down recurve bow.
The self-bow is fashioned from a single piece of carefully selected wood. Selection is based on the type of wood, its straightness of grain, the season it was gathered and the part of the tree from which it was cut. Ideally the belly would be of heart-wood due to its resistance to compression and the outside of sap-wood with its good spring characteristics.
The self-bow can be quickly formed using basic tools. The profile is tapered towards the tips such that it bends gracefully without local stress concentrations. The profile is trimmed to the desired bow draw weight - typically in 50 to 130 lbs range.
War bows tended to be towards the upper end of the draw weight range, giving then a useful range of up to 400 m and with a firing rate of around 8 arrows per minute became a serious weapon when used en mass. Soldier-archers needed to be strong, and as show in the HMS Mary Rose excavation, developed bone deformations (osacromiale) due to the high loads and frequent practice.
The limitations of the self-bow were quickly recognized. They were large, required a heavy draw and tended to break. Solutions appeared to have been independently developed in different parts of the world, and curiously, most along similar lines - re-enforcing the wood with sinew and horn.
Flensed and grease free fibrous sinew from various animals was applied a little like fiberglass today. The sinew was layered down along the axis of the bow and embedded in a fish-gut or animal glue on the outside of the bow to support the tensional load. In the belly of the bow, formed and shaped horn from dear or water buffalo was bonded to resist the compressive load.
Often the wood was steamed and bent to a particular form prior to laminating with sinew and horn. The aim of the bending was partly aesthetic, but more to improve the draw characteristics. As the materials dried the sinew would shrink, bending the bow a little more. Much skill, experience and attention to detail was require for a successful bow.
Once laminated, the bow would be trimmed for balance and "feel" before applying a protective layer of twine, thin leather or other material. Some also has a water proofing treatment to reduce their susceptibility to adverse weather. Some bows went on to become fine works of art with elaborate design and gilding.
All modern bows are center-shot. The concept, developed by Hickman, seem an obvious solution to the traditional bow's basic asymmetry regarding arrow placement, but only became possible with modern materials. The result has been the removal of a complication and a simplification for the archer.
Most modern recurve and compound bows use composite build-up construction methods. The core may be wood or a hard syntactic foam onto which fiberglass or carbon fiber are laminated. These modern materials have a high energy storage density that is invaluable in keeping the moving mass as low as possible for light fast arrows.
The classic recurve bow was a development of the first half of the twentieth century. It was a pragmatic combination of functionality, aesthetics and manufacturability that fed the resurgence of interest in archery.
Since developed by inventor Holless Allen Jr. in the 1960's as a means of improving the hunting bow utility, the compound bow has advanced in leaps and bounds. It is now more accurate and more powerful than all other bow types. And performance has totally trumped aesthetics! To the author's subjective eye all compounds are particularly ugly, however some are technical master pieces.
Elite archers focus on the recurve as it is the only bow type allowed in Olympic completions. The result is many subtle improvements in design.
One feature has been the "take-down" design where the limbs are detachable. This has multiple advantages including:
portability,
interchangeability of limbs,
adjustability of draw and tiller,
tuning in the vertical plane, and
wider possible range of risers.
Typically, the advance recurve will exploit advance materials such as carbon fiber and aluminium alloys.
In the market place the riser has become the main marketing focus. These vary greatly ...